Brian Bennett part 2

Brian Bennett is back on the show to talk about his career. He started performing in 1963 and released his first single in 1965-66. He talks about the impact of Elvis Presley and Bernie Love's song "Burning Love". Brian shares his experience with the band Jason Crest, later known as High Broom, and how they were influenced by the Eagles' song "Take It Easy". He also discusses his time with Mike Stewart Span and their song "Remember the Times". Brian mentions the popularity of Steely Dan and their song "Ricky Don't Lose That Number". He talks about his own chart-topping song "Dancing in the Moonlight" and how Toploader later recorded it. Lastly, Brian mentions Eric Clapton's song "In My Father's Eyes". hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to the mccoll show on the show today i've got with me brian bennett for part two as promised i've got him back in the studio and we're going to continue talking about the tracks of his careers just as soon as we've had the weekly dose of elvis presley and bernie love you're gonna set me on fire where to go i feel my temperature rising burning burning burning and nothing is grooming i just might turn to smoke but i'll be fine so won't you help me lord have mercy burning love oh so i'd like to introduce you once again to my guest today which is brian bennett welcome back into the studio brian and good afternoon to you yeah it's uh i can't do anything about the weather again did you come in a boat okay so what i want to do let's just recap on what we spoke about before um tell the listeners again when you first started out what what year did you actually start performing probably about 63 1963 that is we went i think we went on the road if you like about 1965 66 which is when now we released our first single yes i do which i believe you played yeah we did that on that on the last show i'm not going to do that one today i've got another one i want to uh i want to do with you um so what we'll do shall we have a listen to one of the tracks of music you've selected it's not one of yours okay because the first one i've got is uh take it easy by the eagles how did you come to that was a little bit later i reckon probably 67 when we were called jason crest initially then we became high broom and we were doing um many many residences in germany um in hamburg on the uh on the raper barn at the top 10 club and i'm sure we were sound checking one afternoon or one evening and the dj was already firing up and on came take it easy and it blew us all away because of uh how good the song was and how good the vocals were and i guess you know the guitar playing especially and that we had a big impact on us all at that time it is a cracking song i must admit i do like the eagles myself so i'll tell you what we'll have a listen to it then so we'll have take it easy by the eagles on my mind don't let the sound of your own to find a place to make your advance take it easy it's a girl my lord in a flatbed i gotta know so take it easy so well i've been running down the road trying to loosen my load got a world of trouble on my mind looking for a lover who won't blow my cover she's so hard to find take it take it easy don't let the sound of your own to make you crazy i gotta know if you're sweet and love is gonna save me oh so there you go take it easy on the eagles while i was playing that song i was chatting to brian i said i presume that you uh play those with your modern day set today but i was surprised when you said you don't really because i think it needs many guitars it needs many vocals yeah yeah and yes the songs are so good you do get away just acoustic only but i think you've got to be careful which ones you choose yeah yeah i guess yeah because there is a lot of instruments in that particular track anyway so what i want to do i want to move on because we've got a bit a lot in here i want to get onto one of your tracks now the one i've got to come up first is remember the times which is my mike stewart span um 67 68 yeah i believe so that's right yeah they were based in brighton um we wrote all around i joined them they were established soul band um i joined it was sort of the psychedelic era era inverted commas um so we wrote loads and loads of our own songs i think two albums worth you know 20 25 songs at least um and we did a lot of work all over uk and europe yeah um did you get did you get a rolls royce out of it not rolls maybe uh was it the little one dinky toy yeah yeah but we were chosen it was one of the first fly on the fly on the wall documentaries the bbc ever did called a year in the life and i chose different subjects because i had to be a pop group inverted commas and we we were that band so they came around with us for a year um and the whole series won an award and was repeated again 25 years later so is that is that is that available oh yeah that's yeah if you if you if that is available say the name of it again um it is a year in the life and i think it was titled the big deal group um mike stewart span um bbc documentary from around about that era right okay so let's have a listen to them remember the time of mike stewart in my head what i say i have to be sorry is he don't believe what i say remember is so remember the times that we've had or perhaps you'll be sorry me to be sorry me go remember the times so i've got brian bennett with me and that's one of his tracks and you can actually see brian i believe on youtube and because that was on the tv program that was made and i'm guessing you look a lot younger than um probably 67 68 maybe i did a little bit yeah just a bit younger than them right so because i want to get a lot more in yet so let's move on so your next track that you chose is uh ricky don't lose that number steely dan steely dan exactly how did you come to choose that one a good point i think it they did they just were so different um when they the track started appearing on the radio um so clever so different everybody everybody that played wanted to do steely dan material because it was um because it was just so good very complicated i'd guess nobody did it particularly well but ricky don't lose that number is one that's one of the simpler songs and in fact we have played it i played that in france with um with dale gray and carl sieger and mark gerry gray yes yes and g um so yeah it's still it's still such a good song yeah right so i'll tell you what we'll have a listen to it and then we'll chat a little bit more so ricky don't uh ricky don't lose that number we have your leaving that's okay i thought our little wild time had just begun i guess you could have scared yourself you turn and run but if you have a change of heart ricky don't lose that number you don't want to call nobody else so so when you get home i have a friend in town he's heard your name we can go out driving on slow hand oh and you could have a change of heart oh when you get home so so you tell yourself you're not my kind but you don't even know you're mine and you could have a change of heart ricky don't lose that number you don't want to call nobody else so when you get home ricky don't lose that number so there we go ricky don't lose that number now as we're just saying brian in the in the 60s the tracks were really short because to get them on the radio people wouldn't you know a couple of minutes long and that was it but as time progressed the tracks have got longer and that that's a prime example because that is that is quite a long exactly that's right i think some of the other steely down stuff possibly is even longer but but it was album stuff and not and not chart single sort of material yeah so yeah because nobody plays a full album on the radio anyway these days or even back then no that's right yeah so yeah so let's move on to back on to you to yourself um and you've had you had a um a chart a song in the charts um briefly yeah yeah and what where did it get to again i think it went briefly and well i know it went briefly in the number 38 yeah but it's still here it's still within the top 40 which is great it was still in there yeah and it was uh it was called dancing in the moonlight yeah the first time around yeah yeah it's it's just a good song because i've i've heard it quite a few times now um so let's let's have a play of dancing in the moonlight and oh oh oh everybody's dancing in the moonlight oh everybody's dancing so so everybody's everybody's so there you go there's brian bennett when he was in his band and dancing in the moonlight now there is a quite a bit of a story behind that because as i was playing was chatting about it you actually had that you recorded that before um the band had released it uh top loader yeah 30 31 years before 31 years before and you just told me a really interesting thing that their mother picked you up bought our single yeah and her son picked it out of her record collection listened to it and thought yeah top loader's thing and that's how top loader came to record it but it's quite a story behind that for you really i mean all those years ago there you were laying your bricks hearing yourself hearing yourself on the radio i know and you know you're thinking we're gonna do something there and then then somebody else comes along years later and takes it away from you and still laying bricks still laying bricks uh you must be well experienced by now brian yeah but that's brilliant that's a really good and it is i mean right number 38 and number 38 it's still it's still something to be proud of and to think that somebody else then went on to record something that you'd recorded first i mean you know zmi was it you was with the first time the island record island re-release 18 months later and did nothing again that was with emi right okay yeah so that's great so let's um let's have a little bit more music then what i want to do now is we'll go to i think the eric clapton track that you've chosen which is in my father's eyes yes do you ever listen to that one yeah great track great song we'll have a listen to that because then i want to come back to uh another song which you have which is i'm on fire which we will have a chat about that in a little while so what we'll do is we will play the uh the eric clapton track in my father's eyes um um to come just so much my is oh place that's when i need so so uh so my how could i lose him what did i try i realized that he was here with me i looked into my father's eyes guys my so there we go in my father's eyes eric clapton's have you ever been to one of eric clapton's is it crossroads uh gig he does a big thing isn't it in america no that's his charity is it's in america no i don't know what how many years in between each one i think there has been one recently yeah there was um but never no it would be great to have been but no other other than we supported kareem when he was with kareem in brighton in the early days so you have met yeah briefly yeah um when i was with mike stewart span other than that i've never seen him you know he does all these 30 nights at the albert hall which again i think he's doing shortly and um never never been but for me just a big influence and i think that for me that track it's everything is is he's singing um he's songwriting and the guitar playing all in one it's just for me just so tasty yeah it is i mean he's done some wonderful stuff really yeah as i said last time he is he is my favorite guitar player not from you of course as local guitar players go all right so what i'm going to do is when you was here last time i actually was a bit naughty and i chose a track out of your selection um and i'm going to do it again and i'm going to go we're going to play again it's called i'm on fire but we'll have a little bit of a chat over it as it has been playing for a little bit because you're not very long track nothing yeah so we'll have a listen to that hey little girl is he said he home did he go and leave you all alone i got a bad desire i can take you higher so so tell me brian the track that's playing now i'm on fire did you could you write that yourself no that's a springs theme song yeah um yeah one of them was like to only recently sort of started doing yeah so as a look i did record a little promotional thing about five or six tracks about this time last year and um that's that's on that little promotion which i've never used but there you go yeah nice to have done as i said last time i've heard you play this before but normally it's when you match your electric guitar because this time it is different you've been a future singer yes yeah and it's made it sound so different to me and it's really really good i really do like the song so have you got any intentions of getting with any more bands i would like to yes early days um it's autumn but yeah i all the time i can i don't want to stop playing yeah so um i think what will be will be you know i'm uh get christmas out well i've got i've got a small operation on my hand um scheduled early next year's been put off and put off so i can't do too much until i've had the cut no it's nothing serious i know to help three weeks i won't be able to play that was all yeah so at the moment i'm a little bit in limbo for that reason yeah obviously you're not going to be sure how long your hand's going to take to read you said three weeks quite a crucial thing when you play guitar something like that yeah because i actually know a guy you know he had um he had a stroke and he's lost the use of his right arm so he's developed a way of playing the guitar just using his really left hand and a pedal yes so he's like doing the amarons yeah bending the strings but it is i don't think you might have met him i mean you in your world carl sparky familiar with the name no i'm not actually no no no he's a talented guy he lives down in devon so yeah but back to you because but that's what it's all about so for your final track um we'll look at running on empty which is with jackson brown yeah another another big influence from the early days um jackson brown actually co-wrote take it easy ironically the first eagles song he wrote that with um yeah with one of the eagles um and again a big influence and jackson brown again he's not pop most people probably won't know him but if you play his songs then oh yeah remember that remember that and that's that's jackson brown for me but again a good a great songwriter like the voice um and there's my i guess it's my um the sort of stuff that i like yeah he's very short music yeah that's great so let's have a listen then to running on empty jackson brown so i don't know i'm running just to keep your love alive i don't know my oh does look at looking into me i'd love oh so so second friday of every month they have an open mic uh so that'll start at eight o'clock p.m. for more for more information telephone zero nine seven two six three six six eight five um you can book a table if you wish very very nice meal there you won't be disappointed moving to lucha we have so postcode there eight six four three zero they have uh on a sunday sunday morning at nine o'clock they have a fly ball which is a game for dogs um greatly enjoyed by dog owners as well uh their website is a fly ball dash lucha dot site and they're also on facebook so um have a look at that and just make sure that that's happening before you turn up at the stad at lucha up on a sunday at nine o'clock moving to agnes you blur postcode eight six four three zero there's an association there le pont d'agne and they have every thursday at ten o'clock in the morning they have a local artist john crush he gives art lessons at the sales defect and yeah um email him crush john four four six at yahoo.com for more information and to reserve a place same with the pont d'agne they have a sing-along it's called le chantant ensemble so if you want to go and sing along with like-minded people or takes place at 10 le moulin d'agne at agnes every tuesday from 7 30 pm to 9 30 pm for more information their facebook page is le pont d'agne or email le pont d'agne at gmail.com oh there you go so thank you very much so if you're a an entertainer like brian bender who i've got here with me or an author a comedian or a playwright anything along we've got an interesting story to say get in touch with me at michael at orange.fr and we'll see if we can get you on the radio so going back to brian so brian you've obviously you've got some more tracks of your own as well that we want to play um so we've got i've got the prisoner yeah the prisoner after when um high broom um finished which was the uh dance in the moonlight era yeah we three of us out of the six we stayed with island records and signed again for more acoustic vocal sort of stuff on the lines there was a band called america along those lines so we signed with them and recorded an album which sadly was never released that was 51 years ago and has never been released for 18 in my mind 18 really good tracks um and the prisoner is one of those again also called written by us um and that was it so why wasn't it released to this day i i still blame our management i think we had a manager who was um i could be very careful with my words now again yeah i'm not the best and i think he went to went to london trying to deal with record companies thinking he was the big i am and i don't think uh i think he upset people and they didn't like it and the stuff was never released that's a shame yeah that's a shame that is so what we'll do then is we'll have a listen to the prisoner water blanket from my bed i will somehow hi for good behavior so is me smoking in my home they took away the right to walk around the yard in the day and at the end of quarry while the others went away my russian workers for two weeks and a day back when it was her when i heard him say i need your signs of come with me on this ride away i know i will be a free man so there you go there's brian betty and the prisoner that is a cracking track yeah the band was called montage it developed from high broom and we were six piece then and three of us went back to ireland and we called ourselves montage and 18 tracks recorded none to this day ever ever released and that was one of them i can't believe it i mean i've listened to all of these tracks i'm not surprised you haven't had more more than one in the charts i really am it's yeah it's a crying shame because you must have recorded shed load of stuff yeah i know the total a total of ones here we recorded 35 and 35 singles you know the old 445s and released um maybe five albums you know 15 18 songs on each or you know all written by ourselves and uh it's incredible normally when i have a guest on normally i have to have some extra tracks on me i'm just to cover i ain't gonna do it this time because we're gonna have another one of yours good they really are so what we're gonna have next is we're gonna have old red eye and it's a song about the booze about the booze yeah all about the booze i drink and you and me your red eyes the reason for the shape i'm in what reason to pack it on him don't drink come and we don't drink gin ain't no reason ain't no sin so i don't smoke much because it makes me dry i sleep with my friends and a shot of i don't drink i can take my juice with the best of you it makes me feel the one i see too can't gin so there's another cracking record i mean i i'm absolutely amazed that you haven't that you was laying bricks for as long as you were i've got to be honest i mean all these i mean the listener's got to agree i mean the quality alone of the sound that you've got and it's just just incredible i mean it really is i'll take my hat off to you for you know it is i mean i say when you was playing in bennett seeds and grey that's how i met you yes of course it then i thought you was a great band all three of you together and that's exactly and then the day you announced that you was not going to be playing together anymore was it was a bit of a sad day really but i reckon we've got time for another one in there i thought if there's another song in right yeah i'm my producer's shaking her head at me here but we're going to try and get another one in so i think we'll have i don't mind you reckon brian i don't mind oh um yes what is she called no it's not the title but yeah there's a john martin song i think made uh hip clapton yeah um yeah is it i don't mind you know i'm not sure about it i don't know i'll recognize it when you play yeah you'll recognize it i'm sure so we'll get that one set up and we'll play that one uh i don't care if you never come home i don't mind if you just keep on rolling along on a distant sea but i don't love you and you don't love me you cause a commotion when you come to town give them a smile and they melt the lovers and friends are good and fine but i don't like yours and you don't like mine um so i got a problem can you relate i got a woman calling love hate me we made a vow always be friends how could we know my promises do so what is the correct title we've realized don't we have what it's playing it's called promises promises well i did listen to the track and i had to because i had to obviously you gave me montage and i had to set it down and i couldn't work out what it was just i heard i don't mind so that'll do that'll do yeah so we got there in the end so tell me what where are we going where are we going to next then brian what's what's your big plans for the rest of this year early next year i've got a couple of little gigs by myself um one sitting in with um with another band yeah echo road um i know you know fran yeah yeah fran and uh and the crew um they they haven't got a guitarist until next march so i'm doing a december gig with them soli kushon soli kushon myself i've been there for a while but yeah i was there at the beginning of the year i think it was yeah yeah that's right so yeah yeah and they keep going through the year yeah um there's always going to be music and always good food so yeah it's a nice little scene as well over the lake exactly so we just already said you've not got any plans with bands or anything because you're expecting an operation yeah i must sort this out first yeah you're gonna have to re your hands gonna go yeah i'll start laying bricks for a few weeks preferably not yeah well i'd like to say thank you very much brian for coming in again it's been really interesting and then you've got so much to say i mean you chatted away while the records are playing and honestly i will do a part three later next year for free and um yeah we'll have you back on the tracks of your own so it's uh it's uh it's coming to the end of the show ladies and gentlemen i'm waiting for my producer now she's got to get my jingle music sorted out foreign you